Book review magazine Shelf Unbound is accepting entries for its third annual competition to crown the best from independent presses, self-published authors and publishers producing five or less titles per year. The winning entry, selected by the editors of Shelf Unbound, will be featured with runners-up in the magazine's December/January 2015 issue – read by 125,000 book. This year's competition is sponsored by Bowker, the official U.S. ISBN registration agency and creator of SelfPublishedAuthor.com.

"The publishing universe is transforming, opening to many more authors and providing an extraordinary new range of books for readers," said Beat Barblan, director of Identifier Services at Bowker, a ProQuest affiliate. "Bowker has always played a key role in connecting publishers with readers. We see this wonderful competition as a way to extend that mission in a fun and exciting new way."

More than 391,000 books were self-published in 2012 – more than 400% growth in just five years, according to Bowker's renowned industry tracking. While traditional book reviewing media rarely feature titles from small presses, Shelf Unboundcurates the best of independently published books, helping to connect readers with high-quality titles that might otherwise be missed. Two years ago, they founded the Shelf Unbound Writing Competition for Best Independently Published Book. Past winners include The Last Death of Tev Chrisini by Jennifer Bresnick and The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson by Nancy Peacock.